Friday, May 11, 2012

Putting Twists to Pinoy Dishes

I'm currently attending 3 summer classes in school for advancement. One of the subjects is Asian Cuisine that is interesting and pleasurable. On Mondays, we bring our chosen Asian recipes. We create strategies and game plan to have systematic procedures for the hands-on proper. Time or Speed is an important factor in the cooking process because we are graded based on the effectiveness of our game plan. After the class, we go to a grocery store to buy everything under our market list.

Last Wednesday, our section cooked different Pinoy dishes and merienda. Our group was assigned to prepare beef caldereta and banana fritters or maruya. After getting the utensils and cookwares, we started doing the initial procedure - peeling and cubing of vegetables and preparing other spices.

The ingredients was checked by our professor at 2 pm. Completing it was a cue that we can start cooking.

Beef Caldereta Ingredients:

- 1/2 kg beef ribs

- 6 cloves garlic

- 2 white onions

- 4 tomatoes

- 400 g baby potatoes

- 200 g carrots

- 1 chorizo sausage

- 1 red bell pepper

- 1 green bell pepper

- 2 tbsp
oil

- 1 cup or 237 ml
tomato sauce

- 1 can liver spread

- 2 tbsp soy sauce

- 50 g green olives

- salt and pepper to
taste

Preparations:

Trim the
beef. Cut into 5-cm or 2-in cubes or, if using spare ribs, cut into 5 cm pieces.

Crush, peel, and mince
the garlic.

Peel and chop the
onions.

Peel and chop the
tomatoes.

Clean and wash the
potatoes with a brush. Leave unpeeled.

Peel the carrots. Cut
and shape into 1.5 x 1.5 cm or 1/2 in mini carrots.

Slice the sausage
crosswise into 1-cm or 1/4-in rings.

Seed and slice the red
and green bell peppers into 2-cm or 3/4-in strips.

the smoke with a pungent smell, :))

Cooking:

Place
beef pieces in a pot. Add the water. Cover pot. Just when the water begins to
boil, immediately reduce to simmer 82ºC or 180ºF and cook for 3 hours or until
beef is fork tender. Remove beef from stock and set aside. Reserve beef stock
for making sauce.

Place a frying pan over medium heat then add 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil.

Put chopped Nata de Coco then stir for about 2 minutes and set aside.

Using the
same pan over medium heat, add 3/4 cup vegetable oil.

Once oil is
hot, you are ready to fry the batter.

Scoop a
large spoon full of batter into the hot oil.

Using a
wooden spatula or turner, gather the sides of the fritters to shape it.

Do this in
batches of 3 or 4.

Turn over
the fritter after about 1 minute or when its golden brown.

Cook the
other side then transfer the fritters in a plate.

Repeat the
process until all fritters are cooked. While it's hot, glaze it with cinnamon powder.

Serve in an attractive plate with two scoops of ice cream then garnish with caramelized Nata de Coco and top with chocolate syrup.

she really liked it

She really admired this more than the caldereta. The mild sweetness of chocolate and the fritters which was lightly glazed with cinnamon was a perfect afternoon snack with a twist of ice cream and nata de coco. You can also try to prepare this at home even without the ice cream and cinnamon. Brown sugar can be used as an alternative to cinnamon. As logically computed, the cost is only P40 per serving. This traditional maruya with a twist looked like a restaurant specialty.